Broadway Cultural Festival - May 5th, 3-9PM

How cool is this? Hope to see you there!

April 21, 2018

Momentum Gallery in downtown will be taking its place in a new and permanent location at 52 Broadway in the coming months. Momentum Gallery, along with new neighbors the Center for Craft, Creativity and Design, Black Mountain College Museum, Blue Ridge Public Radio (BPR), Mora, and The Satellite Gallery join to create the Cultural Gateway to the City of Asheville through the Broadway Arts District. This creative corridor to the city of Asheville welcomes visitors and residents alike to the vast array of community partners pioneering to create a sustainable and culturally-rich downtown. Welcoming all forms of the arts through local public radio, museums, galleries, jewelers, and committed citizens, the Broadway Arts District is defining the downtown landscape through its collective undertaking to increase awareness for the arts in Western North Carolina.

SATURDAY, MAY 5TH, CREATIVE INTERVENTION WILL BE TAKING PLACE! HERE IS A LINK TO THE FACEBOOK EVENT:

PRESS RELEASE FROM MOUNTAINTRUE:

Have you ever experienced the gritty charm of downtown Asheville’s largely undiscovered Carolina Lane? Perhaps you are more familiar with its more famous cousin, Chicken Alley? On May 5, these alleyways and nearby streets will host a Creative Intervention – that is, a one-day event that prototypes design interventions and art-based solutions that shift how the public interacts with urban spaces.

The event is free and open to the public. It is one component of the Broadway Cultural Gateway project, an effort to transform Broadway Street into a central artery for a vibrant arts and cultural district stretching from its intersection with Woodfin Street to the cultural attractions of Pack Place.

The Asheville Design Center (ADC), the Center for Craft, UNC Asheville students and faculty, UNCA STEAM Studio, Asheville Downtown Association, and League of Creative Interventionists, among others, will activate the study area to engage the public around what’s possible. For example, the Center for Craft will host a pop-up makerspace and ‘repair cafe’ in its Carolina Lane-facing basement, along with a temporary parklet in front of the Broadway Street entrance.

“We believe that Asheville’s future is largely dependent on the health of our creative sector and its relationship to the built environment,” says Stephanie Moore, Executive Director of the Center for Craft. “We are thrilled to be working with the such a strong team of community partners, including ADC, to prototype potential future scenarios on May 5th. The event is an opportunity to creatively engage the community for input and ideas, which will inform a broader community vision for the neighborhood,” says Moore.

The May 5 Creative Intervention Event is an opportunity for the public to experience the potential of a “creative intervention” to transform difficult and unexpected public spaces. ADC’s team of design and planning experts will collect community feedback and data from the event to inform both a long-term implementation plan for the Broadway Cultural Gateway project.

“As part of this design experiment, we’re keeping Carolina Lane open to cars and trucks. The alley is used for parking, to access private garages and by delivery drivers and garbage trucks,” explains Chris Joyell, director of the Asheville Design Center (a program of MountainTrue). “That’s not going to change, so it’s important for us to test how pedestrians and vehicles can safely share the same place.”